Filmmaker Sean Baker returns to the podcast, and his co-director for Take Out and frequent collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou joins for the first time. We talk about their origins of working together, the style they established with Take Out and how that impacted future films, the feeling of being in the Criterion Collection, the restoration process of the film in preparation for release, the supplements on the disc, and more. We also have occasional digressions where we talk about filmmakers we love such as Lee Chang-dong, David Lynch, and others.

Criterion Collection – Take Out

We took an unannounced hiatus for a lot of reasons. Jill and Aaron are now officially back and ready to resume the show. This one was just us “shooting the s**t” without an intro or anything. We just wanted to get back into the swing of podcasting, plus sharing what we’ve been up to, and what we’re looking forward to. As it happens we have two other episodes that are in the pipeline so expect more soon.

Trevor Berrett and David Blakeslee are pleased to present Inside the Box, a podcast series that explores the riches in the various box sets released by The Criterion Collection. In this episode, they discuss A Whit Stillman Trilogy. This untraditional box set contains the films Metropolitan (1990), Barcelona (1994), and The Last Days of Disco (1998).

Over the course of the 1990s, writer-director Whit Stillman made a trilogy of films about the acid tongues and broken hearts of some haplessly erudite young Americans in New York and abroad. Set in the eighties, these films trace the arc of that decade, led by Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut, Metropolitan,which introduced moviegoers to a strange, endangered species of privileged New Yorker, the “urban haute bourgeoisie.” Chronologically, the tale continues with The Last Days of Disco, in which, with an earnest wink, Stillman mourns the close of New York’s nightclub era via the story of two young party-going women juggling day jobs in book publishing. Finally, Barcelona plunks down a pair of love-starved upper-class men in a foreign city rife with anti-American sentiment. At once effervescent and melancholy, these are comedies about the ends of cultural moments, social change as seen through the eyes of reluctant, unflaggingly sardonic romantics.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. Each episode of this third season of the podcast features conversations with a variety of guests offering insights on movies that originally premiered in 1971 and were destined to eventually bear the Criterion imprint. In this episode, David is joined by Dan Humphrey and Brad McDermott to discuss The Canterbury Tales, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Richard Doyle and Robert Taylor to discuss The Poseidon Adventure, directed by Ronald Neame. At the time of this recording, the film was streaming on the Criterion Channel in a limited engagement scheduled to end on August 31, 2022.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Daisuke Beppu, Richard Doyle, and Robert Taylor to discuss Savages, directed by James Ivory. The film was previously issued on DVD by the Criterion Collection in 2004 as part of the Merchant Ivory Collection.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Richard Doyle to discuss Dracula A.D. 1972, directed by Alan Gibson. The film previously streamed on the Criterion Channel, but was not available on that service at the time of this recording.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Josh Hornbeck, Derek J. Power, William Remmers and first-time guest Brian Howell to discuss The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Richard Doyle and Jim Tudor to discuss Beware! The Blob, directed by Larry Hagman, which was available on the Criterion Channel streaming service for a limited run in 2020, but not at the time of this recording.

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. This fourth season of the podcast features conversations about movies that originally premiered in 1972 and were destined to eventually receive the Criterion imprimatur. In this episode, David is joined by Richard Doyle and Jason Beamish to discuss Shaft’s Big Score!, directed by Gordon Parks. We also discuss a bonus title from 1972, Top of the Heap, directed by and starring Christopher St. John. Both films were available on the Criterion Channel streaming service at the time of this recording.